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Well, I have made a little more progress on the sewing/craft room. This is a medium-sized laminate cupboard. This summer I hope to paint it white.

Here is the disorganized/messy BEFORE!

I thought I would break it down, shelf-by-shelf before I show the final “after”! I know you are dying to see it, but, patience, my dears!!!! Anyway, this took me some time – so I can’t make it as easy as here’s the before and here’s the after, can I ?!?!?!?!?

Here is the messy bag storage BEFORE! This is the 3rd shelf down.

In the first “before” pictures you can see the bottom of the tan/white print shelf-deal sitting on top of the cupboard. Here is a close-up (sorry really grainy) picture of the whole deal.

It is made completely out of cardboard. I have had it for years, and I’m not sure why I spent good money on it, but let’s chalk that up to immaturity! I shouldn’t really complain, it has lasted the last 10 years also! I ended up using the drawers for storage in the cupboard on the opposite side of the room. See my Craft Room Organization part 1. Well, I used the shelf part of the cardboard storage deal to organize my gift bags and tissue paper.

I laid the cardboard “shelving” on it side and I sorted the bags by size. I also added an insert so I could stack 2 rows of tissue paper, sorted by color (as seen in the left hand cubby). I even had a couple HUGE bags that I stored on top of it.

I feel I must explain why I have so many gift bags and so much tissue paper! My mother-in-law works for a card company so when they switch out things seasonally, she gets to take a bunch of stuff home! I don’t think I will ever have to buy wrapping paper, cards, gift bags or tissue paper again – not a bad thing!

Now that it is more organized, I’ll even be able to find the right size when I need one without them falling all over the place!

On to the next shelf…

This is the BEFORE of the top shelf – wow – terrible picture, big mess!!!

Let’s see – what do we have here??? Looks like paper ribbons (another gift from my mother-in-law) some shelf liner, a Menards bag with what looks like free school supplies. We usually participate in the Samaritan’s purse shoe boxes, so I pick up any school supplies when they are cheapest or free with a rebate! I’m really not sure what is in the red/black bag. I used to use that for yarn storage – waaaayyyyy before I accumulated what I have now! To see how I am storing yarn see my Craft Room Organization Part II. I even see a large rubber mallet (used for cake decorating!!!!) I think I had an old light fixture and it looks like some plastic cups assembled for a cupcake bouquet! Definitely a mixed bag of what-not!

Anyway – here is what I have stored in there now…

and…

The drawers are where I am accumulating certain sized strips. Whenever I have just a small amount of material left, I cut it down to whatever size fits and throw it in the drawers. Someday, I should be able to make a nice scrappy quilt! Or I can just craft with it!!!

I am storing the ribbon in a refrigerator cheese container deal. It is easy to pull out and throw back in the cupboard! I found that this works better than having a static curtain rod (like before) where you have to know how much you need and cut it off before getting to your project or you have to slide half of them off to get to the one you want and – for me, that just made it way too easy to leave it sit out until I was finished with the ribbon. And of course, you know, I never get interrupted while working on things!!!! I am using an old vase to toss my duct and double-sided carpet tape on.

On to the 2nd shelf… (please don’t ask me why I started on the 3rd shelf?!?!?! I’m not changing it now though!) BEFORE…

The bag on the left had lots of shelf liner. Gift bags work good for storing things besides gifts!!! Shelf liner is right up there with duct tape in it’s usefulness, so I keep lots of it on hand! It works great when you are transporting cakes! You can see my attempt at corralling the contact paper and cake foil. I had 2 shelf brackets stuck to the cupboard with that sticky yellow wall stuff (sorry, don’t know the official name for it) This worked okay – kept the rolls from rolling off the shelf, but it was difficult to find which color you wanted. So I came up with a different solution…

It isn’t real pretty, but it was free and it works! I made a cardboard “riser” with a front edge to hold the contact paper on top, and the shelf liner below. I added one of the chalkboard labels that I made for other organization projects including my cupcake liner box. You don’t see any cake foil, because that found a home in a dresser that is in my craft room. I’ll show you that in an upcoming post!

The other side of the shelf has an old paper box – I could cover it to make it look neater but, right now I’m going for organization not prettiness. It is also behind closed doors, so it isn’t seen normally! This box contains all the extra school supplies and small gifts that I pick up throughout the year. This makes it easy to participate in the Samaritan’s purse shoe box program and also makes birthday party gifts quick and easy!

The final and bottom shelf…

Well, let’s take a look at what we have here!!! Diapers (haven’t needed them for 4 years), nursing pads (not used in the last 5 years!), I’m not even sure what is in the plastic bags. I’m pretty sure most of this was donated or given to my sisters who have babies!!!

This is what it looks like now…

The small box on the left contains different wires (used for caking and also crafting!) I have all my knit material stored in the clear zippered plastic case that came from a blanket we bought. I do leave it unzipped partially, just to let the material breathe. And, my paper cutter is no longer setting on top of the cupboard, but has found a new home, hidden inside the cupboard! And do you see that prime piece of real estate in the right hand corner. Empty space! Wow – I’m sure I’ll be able to find something a home there, but for now, I’ll give the cupboard a break and leave it empty!

So – this is what you have been tirelessly waiting for – the final result!!!!!!

( I had to show the BEFORE, just once more so you can truly see the difference!)

and – the AFTER!

Okay – so, that was being a little overly dramatic!!! It is definitely an improvement and I look forward to finding things now – because my chances of getting what I came to get out of here is much better!

I would love to paint this cupboard white inside and out and add crown molding and some trim. I’ll have to add this to my list of things to do!

(Can you tell, I have been working on my camera skills – the after pictures are much better than the before?!?!?!?)

My Craft/Sewing room closet has been being used for the sewing machine for the past 4 years or so. I took off the doors and painted the dark paneling white. I wish I had a before and after picture to show – but that was before I started blogging. I was using plastic tubes set on end with the opening out to store my yarn, but it wasn’t working out real well! Because everything was stacked 10 layers deep, you can imagine what typically happened when a skein that was in the center was pulled out! YARN AVALANCHE!!

I added a curtain so that the closet has a “cleaner” look

and behind the curtain…

I happened to get some brand new boxes that someone was giving away. I taped the ends and cut them in half with a utility knife – making a great size box for yarn! I added a duct tape edge to the front of the 3rd box up on the right because they are smaller balls of yarn and wanted to roll. A sturdier option would be to add a cardboard edge – which may happen if I have problems. So far so good! I am also storing some batting up there.

So the craft/sewing room organization is coming along – slowly but surely. Of course I have been working on other things in between. With the table cleared and my one cupboard organized, things are much easier to find so I craft more!

January is a good time to start fresh and so I wanted to work on organizing my craft room. I have been inspired by so many others who are doing the same!

Our house has 4 bedrooms so the 4th bedroom has become my craft/sewing room (a.k.a. dumping ground!!!)

It is the smallest bedroom at 9 1/2 feet wide by 12 feet long. It also houses my piano. Over the last couple years I have made changes to the room to make it more useful, and the layout has worked fine. Now I just need to get everything organized and hopefully do a little better job of decorating. Then maybe we can eliminate (or at least reduce) the amount of dumping that gets done there! (It really has NOTHING to do with my tendency to have multiple projects going at the same time! lol)

This will be a big project for me so I’m breaking it up and trying to celebrate the small victories! Hopefully, when it is all finished, I can give you a complete before and after. In the meantime, this is where I’m at as of today!

This is the before of the cupboard hanging above the piano…

This cupboard actually came out of the garage from our old house. I think we got it when my aunt remodeled her kitchen. I painted it white before I hung it here. It was a challenge to get it hung by myself, but I was bound and determined on that day that it would be hung so I made it work! Would I do that again? Probably not… My husband will gladly help me – I’m just really impatient. When I get something in my head, I want it done – like yesterday!!

As you can see, I still have my fall pumpkins tucked away on top of the piano. They went into a storage tub in the basement. You’ll have to excuse the wonky lamp. The plastic cover is broken and gets bumped alot for some reason! The blue crate is holding all of the piano books – plus the ones laying beside it on the piano! What a mess!!!

This is what the inside of the cupboard looked like a couple weeks ago. All sorts of whatnot everywhere all jumbled up!

Now – on to the improved version – thank goodness!

Ahhhh – so much better. I got rid of a lot of stuff and did a better job of containing what was left. I am going to work on getting some labels on all the boxes. The patterned boxes are actually from a cardboard “dresser” if you could even call that. It was sitting in a different area of the room, but got reused here.

The pink box is a lid off of a box and fits inside the other box/drawers perfectly, so I am storing my crochet hooks and yarn needs in the tray above the thread.

In the top left corner, I made a small cabinet type thing to hold more cardboard “drawers”. I got the idea from Christin at Pregnant with Power Tools. Only I used what I had – which is cardboard and some leftover wood from projects. I hope to make nicer labels for these also. For right now, I used dry erase marker that I can erase from the contact paper I have on the front.

The bottom left corner is now holding all the piano books that I kept – out of the blue crate. My son built this “shelf” for me last summer and I was really happy to put it to good use and make him feel pretty good also! The binder holds music that was printed off the internet. I also want to label that and the shelf. Hopefully the labels will help keep everything in place! I am hoping that crown molding and some trim are also in the future for this very useful cabinet. We’ll see how we do!?!

So one last time…

BEFORE

AFTER

I have lots of work to do in this room, but hopefully, by blogging about it, it will hold me accountable and I’ll get it all accomplished.

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About Me

Hi! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy looking around and maybe even be inspired as I have been by so many of the great bloggers out there! I am a SAHM of 2 boys. I have been married to the love of my life for over 14 years. Every year gets sweeter than the last! I dabble in many things: cake decorating, DIY, home decor, sewing, crocheting, wood working, gardening and more!